Cait Conley finally denounces Mamdanis Oct. 7 post after Rep. Mike Lawler takes her to task

Democrat Cait Conley finally condemned Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s anti-Israel rhetoric — but only after Rep.Mike Lawler backed her into a corner for repeatedly dodging the question.“Yes, I do denounce Mamdani’s statement on Oct.

7th,” Conley said while squaring off with conservative incumbent Lawler in their final debate Wednesday night.“I condemn antisemitism from any party or anyone,” she added.That admission came only after Lawler called her out for refusing to denounce what he characterized as Mamdani’s “antisemitic base” — the anti-Zionism pervading the mayor’s Democratic Socialists of America party — during their first debate in September, putting Conley on blast when they met again Wednesday.“Last debate, Cait was given four opportunities to condemn Zohran Mamdani’s antisemitism and she refused each time only for him to issue the most vile antisemitic statement on Oct.

7,” Lawler said.He was referring to Mamdani’s widely maligned statement on this year’s Hamas terror attack anniversary, which paid brief lip-service to the 1,200 people massacred in 2023 — before dedicating most of the statement to “the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza.”That statement hadn’t been made at the last 17th District debate — on Sept.28 — where Lawler repeatedly tried to get Conley to denounce Mamdani’s anti-Israel stances, before she dodged and parried each time.“Do you denounce Donald Trump for the harm he’s caused to families in the Hudson Valley?” she shot back once.But Mamdani’s Oct.

7 statement appeared to have been enough for Conley to grab onto and denounce Wednesday — and even once she did, Lawler still let her have it.“Great,” he said.

“It shouldn’t have taken you until today to denounce it.”The candidates are duking it out in one of the state’s most Jewish districts, meaning the conflict in Israel and Gaza has been one of the hottest subjects on the campaign trail.Lawler has...